OS updates

PARIS--In the fight between the two smartphone heavyweights, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was blunt today about who he thinks is winning.

"Android is ahead of the iPhone now," Schmidt declared to an audience of techies and aspiring entrepreneurs at the LeWeb conference here.

He made his statement to a room bursting at the seams with iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and the audience met his words with a moment of silence that implied some skepticism. So Schmidt elaborated on how he was measuring: "unit volume, Ice Cream Sandwich, the price is lower, there are more vendors." … Read more

Verizon Wireless will begin selling its version of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Friday, according to documents purportedly from an authorized Verizon retailer.

An e-mail and PDF posted by RootzWiki say UPS will ship the phones to Verizon stores on December 6 and gives an "official launch date" of Friday, December 9.

"Do not receive the product in via your scanner (this is a change in procedure)," the e-mail warned those collecting the shipments to stores--perhaps in response to the frequency with which sales plans have been revealed through screenshots of retail inventory systems.

Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. … Read more

Google has begun testing an update for its Android mobile operating system on some Google employees' phones before releasing it to the public.

An over-the-air update for Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, recently arrived on some employees' Nexus S phones, according to an Android Police report.

"Just got Ice-cream Sandwich update on my Nexus S & it's looking great :)," Google engineer Adel Saoud said in a Google+ post.

Testing of Android 4.0 is expected to take at least a few weeks, with the over-the-air release to follow--good news for Nexus S owners.

Ice Cream … Read more

At first blush, Android Beam sounded like it could go the route of face unlocking--one of those fun, breezy gimmicks in the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system that would last for a party trick or two, but ultimately die down.

With only one review unit in-house, there was no way to know for sure. However, fellow mobile journalist Blake Stimac and I brought our Galaxy Nexus phones together for a little playdate, and it quickly became clear how useful and broad Android Beam can be.

As a refresher, Android Beam uses NFC (near-field communication), a radio frequency technology, to pass certain types of information from one phone to a compatible phone (for starters, both phones need NFC.) Assuming both phones' screens are on, NFC is enabled on both phones, and Android Beam is activated, which it is by default, you can simply press the backs of the two phones together to trigger a beam.… Read more

A holiday-themed Flash ad makes it appear that Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the phone that's carrying Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" to market, will cost $199.99 through Verizon.

The phone has gone on sale in the United Kingdom, but has yet to appear in the United States. The phone has a large 4.65-inch touch screen, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a 1080p videocamera and 720p screen, and 4G LTE speeds on Verizon's wireless network, but its most notable feature is the next-gen operating system from Google.

Android Police spotted the ad, noting that … Read more

Running a newly released version of Windows or Mac OS X on a 3-year-old personal computer is an unremarkable feat.

But it's a lot more difficult in the smartphone world, where hardware and software have been changing at a breakneck pace. That's why I recommend watching this brief demonstration of Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, on the first-generation Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 from October 2008.

XDA Developers forum member jcarrz1 posted the video and an alpha version of his OS build yesterday, nine days after Google released the Ice Cream Sandwich source code.

As you may expect, the new OS drags on the comparatively ancient hardware, with slow app launches and long lags between a touch action and the phone's response. But all the ICS apps work.

What doesn't work at this stage, jcarrz1 said: Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth, and screen rotation. … Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich runs on tablets and smartphones--but thus far its debut has been a phone phenomenon only, what with the release of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus.

Now, though, Nvidia has released a promotional video showing Android 4.0 on a tablet. Specifically, on an Asus Transformer Prime, which uses the quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Oops, I mean five-core Tegra 3 processor--the fifth core is there for low-power moments when the quad-core power isn't needed.

Nvidia's demo, using Ice Cream Sandwich and built two days after Google released its source code, shows a number of features: the … Read more

Although Flash has been a staple on Android, don't expect to find it in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) just yet.

Speaking to Slashgear over the weekend, Google said that Ice Cream Sandwich will not come with Flash preinstalled nor will the platform be available in Android Market. The issue, Google told Slashgear, is that Adobe has yet to update its application to make it function properly on the new operating system.

Currently, Adobe's Flash Player only works with Android versions 2.2 to 3.2, according to its Android Market listing.

That should change soon, though. … Read more

The Ice Cream man has finally arrived.

Just two days ago, CNET's San Francisco team got its hands on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the flagship smartphone that's launching Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. More full-on visual revamp than simple update, an OS bump this deep and broad makes (as I've said before) Android 2.3 Gingerbread look like a stale cookie.

Ice Cream Sandwich is ambitious, and packed with such a laundry list of detailed changes, it's easy to drown in the minutiae. For that reason, I'm keeping this review focused on the bigger-picture features that are new to Ice Cream Sandwich. For more detail, the screenshots gallery will be worth several thousand words. Toward the end, you'll also find a list of Ice Cream Sandwich's neater tricks.… Read more